Summary: When Kate sets out to find her biological father, she's met with the promise that they won't know each other for long. When Sam refuses to fight his disease any longer, Kate becomes obsessed with finding a cure. Her research leads her to the only surgeon willing to operate on her father. Kate faces losing the father she's just found while trying to resist the distraction a relationship with Sam's doctor could bring. Some things are never easy-- including matters of the heart.

Jate AU. Sam is Kate's biological father, not Wayne. Wayne conveniently never existed. Sam is a construction contractor based in LA, not a Sergeant. Why? Because I can, and because that fits the Sam I have in mind better.

First chapter is a lot of set up, but you have to build from something. :) Reviews, please! They're especially helpful in the beginning of stories so I know what to weave in through the rest of the chapters.

Chapter 1

Lost and Found

Ever since she could remember, Kate wanted to meet her father. Her biological father, the one who had been absent from her life, who she had never seen a picture of, who was shrouded in mystery, and it was this mystery, perhaps, that led her to search for him.

At first he was untraceable, and Kate regretted not pushing her mother for more information about him before her death the previous year. It seemed there were too many Sam Austens out there to narrow down the results. Only after many weeks of near relentless searching did she come up with a lead. He was in Los Angeles, working as a construction contractor.

Minus living in LA, he didn't seem nearly as glamorous as she'd wanted to believe. When she was little, she imagined he was a movie star—dashing good looks, a flashy smile—who had swept her mother off her feet, however brief their relationship had been.

Kate was never able to get it out of her mother, and the story behind how she was conceived was surely an awkward one at that, but Kate always figured she was the product of a one night stand, that maybe Sam was just passing through whatever dingy diner in whatever dingy town Diane was working in at the time. Maybe he'd flashed that smile Kate had always dreamed about, ordered some coffee and a slice of pie, and invited her back to his motel room.

Or maybe not.

"M'am?" Kate vaguely heard. "M'am?" the flight attendant asked again, her patience pressed. "Water, juice, soda, what'll it be?"

Kate's attention snapped to woman, her eyes still downcast, before murmuring, "Nothing, thanks."

The woman moved on to the person seated next to Kate, handing the young, old, man, woman—Kate wasn't sure, she hadn't been able to pay attention to anything in anticipation of her visit—a bag of pretzels and pouring some Coke into a short plastic cup.

The flight from Des Moines to LA wasn't particularly long, and two hours after the flight attendant had passed by, the flight was landing.

She'd bought the ticket on a whim—a product of one of those internet travel sites—and now that she was there, in the middle of LAX, in the middle of someplace completely unfamiliar with only a carry-on bag and a rolling suitcase, she wasn't sure what to do, or where to go.

She swallowed back the lump that was forming quickly in her throat, tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. Ever since her mother had died, she hadn't been able to keep her emotions in check. It wasn't even that she was sad anymore. She still missed her mother, of course, but her life had gone on. She thought of her every day, that bubbly, loving mother she'd had, who had come across just a little too much bad luck during her short life. As cliché as it sounded, something inside her just wasn't the same.

It would've been a better idea to make some sort of contact with Sam Austen before barging in on his life, she thought as she hailed a cab, directing the driver to go to the nearest moderately priced hotel. How would she feel if someone from her past, someone that she'd never even met, showed up and claimed to be a relative?

"This okay?" the driver asked as he pulled into a Holiday Inn. "Pretty close to the city, don't know where you're going though," he said.

It looked safe enough, and cheap enough considering the part of California she was in. She had no idea how long she'd be there, or if she would even have the courage to find Sam.

"It's fine," she told the driver, tipping him generously, feeling bad for staying so quiet for the whole ride.

Why LA? she wondered after she checked in, slipping the key card in the door to her room—168, fourth floor, she noted for future reference—had he grown up somewhere around here, or was he like half the city, a transplant?

After calling the front desk for the hotel's wireless password, Kate pulled her laptop from her carry-on. Without it, she doubted tracking down Sam would be very easy, and even with it, she wondered if the magical powers of the internet could rescue her.

There was something slightly creepy about searching for a person's whereabouts online, but seeing no other alternative, she continued her quest, eventually coming across Ross Construction, with the name 'Sam Austen' in bold lettering.

A picture of him on the company website stared back at her. Maybe she expected warm, paternal feelings to rise in her, but she felt no different. She had no connection to this man, but she was here in LA to change that.

The loss of her mother had brought about the strong urge to track down her biological father. With virtually no male figures in her life while growing up, she'd often wondered if she really was missing out on something vital.

Kate's relationships with men had been rocky to say the least. At thirty, she'd never been in a relationship that she considered remotely successful. Maybe she was deeply flawed, or maybe, just maybe, not having a father around had been more detrimental than she thought.

Convinced that she'd found the right Sam, Kate scribbled down the address of Ross Construction, and prayed that he'd be there the next day when she went to check it out.

"Sam Austen? Tall guy? Blondish-brown hair?" a construction worker asked her. He was the first soul she'd met at the Ross Construction offices. "Haven't seen him in awhile. Go ask Tony over there. Guy with the glasses."

When she tracked down Tony, he threw her a furtive glance after she asked him about Sam.

"He's on vacation, probably will be for some time," the man told her. "Why do you care?"

"Just trying to catch up," Kate lied, hoping that her thin disguise wasn't too thin.

Tony cocked his eyebrow. "You don't seem the type to be 'catching up'," he laughed gruffly.

Instantly annoyed, Kate tried not to let the irritation show. "Do you know where he is, or can you send me in the right direction?"

He seemed to think over her request, before leading her over to his desk. "Listen, we're not supposed to do this, but let me give you his address. You seem alright. Family or something?"

"No," Kate spit out quickly, and changing the subject, said, "I thought he was on vacation?"

Tony shrugged. "The guy's not going anywhere, trust me. Just don't tell him who sent you."

After getting directions from Tony and finally managing to hail a cab, Kate stood outside the door that her father potentially was behind. From the outside the building looked decent enough; exactly what she expected for a construction contractor.

The inside was dimly lit, and before she could think any longer and convince herself to turn around and fly back to Iowa, she knocked soundly three times.

As she waited outside for an answer, she told herself that the worst that could happen was that Sam wouldn't want anything to do with her. And why should that be a big deal? You couldn't lose something if you never had it in the first place.

Suddenly the door swung open. "Yeah?" the man asked, and Kate was taken aback. He was definitely the Sam Austen from the picture she'd seen on the Ross Construction website, but his features were gaunt, his face pale. His short hair somehow managed to be stringy, the color hard to describe, but slightly resembled dirty dishwater.

"Oh—" Kate started, not sure what to say now that she was face to face with Sam Austen. "Are you Sam?" she asked dumbly, feeling her face flame.

He nodded in affirmation. "I don't want anything," he sighed. "Try Mary next door. She'll buy anything."

"I'm not selling anything," she tried again. "I'm here to see you."

Sam cocked his head back. "See what? Not trying to be rude or anything, but do we know each other?"

Kate shook her head. "We've never met. I actually—I don't know how to say this exactly, but I think you might've known my mom?"

She thought her explanation was a bit more subtle than telling this stranger she thought he might be her father.

"Know a lot of people," he replied. "What's this about?"

She supposed the only way to continue was with the story of Diane's death. "My mom died last year and I'm trying to tie up some loose ends. I guess it's my way of coping, and I'm sorry if it's weird but I had to find you."

Sam rubbed his tired face with a palm. "What, did I help build her house or something?"

Kate wanted to scream that he'd never done anything for them, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. While she loved her mother more than anyone in the world, she had never pretended not to be flighty.

"Diane Jansen ring any bells?"

"Where we talking? LA?"

Kate shrugged. "Not sure. She moved around a lot. I think you would've met her in the late '70s. Lifelong blonde, on the tall side, thin."

"Diane Jansen, huh? Did she happen to be obsessed with poppyseed muffins?"

Tears sprang to Kate's eyes and she knew that she'd found her father. Her mother had an unnatural love for lemon poppyseed muffins, and Kate could clearly remember numerous mornings being woken to the smell of them baking in the tiny kitchen.

"Yeah," she bit out, "that was her."

"Poppy," he muttered, shaking his head. "She's really gone?"

"Cancer," Kate told him, taking in Sam's use of 'Poppy' as a nickname for Diane, wondering how many other things she might learn about her mother if she hung around with Sam long enough.

"Cancer," Sam dwelled, shutting his eyes as if to block it out. "It's a sonofabitch isn't it?"

Wringing her hands together, a nervous habit of she never managed to get rid of, Kate took a step forward, surprised when Sam opened the door further in invitation.

"Can you remember when you met her?" she asked hopefully.

It seemed that even trying to produce memories from his past took a toll on the older man, made him appear more tired than the average person. After a while, he finally spoke.

"It was the year the Cowboys won the Super Bowl, so… 1978?"

"Again, I don't know exactly how to say this, and I want to put it out there that it's okay if you want nothing to do with me, and I know that this is random and I'm not asking you for anything, or expecting anything from you, but I think—"

"That I'm your father?" Sam interrupted her, raising his eyebrows.

Suddenly Kate felt shy. "Well, yeah. I mean, all my mother ever told me was that your name was Sam Austen, and putting two and two together from when I was born… well, you kind of have to be, don't you?"

"Why don't you come in," Sam said, and Kate walked into the sparse apartment. "Wondered why she took off like that. We were only together about a month, you know, then next thing I know, poof, she's gone. Never saw her again."

Grateful that Sam seemed to be taking the news in stride, Kate let herself relax a little bit, though she still sat stiffly in the armchair, waiting for something else to upturn her world. Hearing stories about her mother was fascinating, but she wasn't sure what else she was in store for.

"So you're not surprised by this?"

Sam tried to chuckle but produced an airy cough instead. "Kinda relieved actually. 'Least now I know what the hell went wrong all those years ago."

"Wrong?" Kate frowned.

He put a hand up in apology. "Well, you know what I mean."

"I'm not sure what I came out here for, maybe just to meet you, see what you're like, and I'm not sure what to do with myself now that this is over with…"

Sam succeeded in chuckling this time. "You could start by telling me your name. Might need to know that."

Kate blushed, embarrassed that she'd managed to pour her heart out to this relative stranger and introduce herself as his daughter without mentioning her name.

"Kate," she said bashfully. "I'm Kate."

"Guess you are. Wouldn't know any different," he said thoughtfully.

When she couldn't think of anything else to say, Kate thought back to the conversation she had with Tony earlier. "The guy I talked to at Ross Construction, he said that you're on vacation and that you might be for awhile…"

"Yeah," Sam started. "About that. Look Kate, I'm real glad you took the time to track me down and you seem like you turned out pretty well, but I think we started this a little too late."

Kate frowned, her forehead creasing in confusion. "Too late for what?"

"Vacation is just a nice term they're using over there for my permanent absence. Been out for a month."

"I don't—"

"I got cancer, Kate. In my back, spreading god knows where. Said they can't do much anymore," he said with a shrug that showed Kate he'd accepted his diagnosis long ago. "I know we've just met and I don't want to scare you away, but I figured you at least deserve to know after all you went through to get out here."

The dread she subconsciously expected was now coursing through her body. Though she hardly knew the man, she didn't want him taken away so fast, without much of a chance to get to know him.

"You mean to say," she started, choosing her words delicately, "that you're dying?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Up next: Kate does some research, and maybe meets a certain doctor?